


returning like waves on the seashore

by SerpentineJ



Category: Mushishi
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:45:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerpentineJ/pseuds/SerpentineJ
Summary: Adashino is always waiting, and Ginko is always leaving.





	returning like waves on the seashore

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: The title/summary sounds so edgy ojsdlkjsldkfj

"Yo."

Adashino looks up from the rocky path at the sound of that familiar voice. He squints around his monocle. He's returning from the village, his medicine bag heavy on his shoulder, and the glitters thrown off the surface of the sea dance in his eyes and dazzle his vision. Up ahead, a familiar white head of hair catches the light. Ginko waves. Adashino waves back. It takes a minute for him to draw level with Ginko, but he does. His feet feel lighter.

"Already back?" Adashino says, smiling nonetheless. "It's only been a couple months this time."

Ginko shrugs. He takes a pull off his hand-rolled cigarette, blows out a puff of that herb-scented smoke that Adashino had associated with him at their very first meeting- even if he weren't constantly smoking them, the scent would cling to his clothes and his pack like it belonged on his person. They continue on the path to Adashino's house. Their sandals scrape on the loose dirt and rock with bare noises.

"Found some interesting things." Ginko says, adjusting his shoulders under the straps of his box-pack, and Adashino's fingers twitch around the handle of his own bag. The wonders Ginko's pack must hold- he's determined to get to the depths of that, someday. Ginko watches him out of the corner of his one eye.

They come up to Adashino's house- Adashino quickly hops up to the porch, deposits his bag beside his low sitting desk, and quickly sits down, beckoning GInko to set down his pack. His eyes are fixed on it. Ginko chuckles.

"As much of a one-track mind as always, sensei," he says, settling opposite Adashino, getting that mischievous look in his eyes that he gets when he's looking to bargain with Adashino, or he's found something he thinks the doctor will particularly like. Ginko, for his part, enjoys coming back to visit his singular friend. If he weren't a wanderer, he thinks sometimes, living with Adashino at this seaside village might not be so bad. Of all the treasures he's found on his journeys, Adashino's interest is the most valuable. Adashino is watching Ginko's fingers fiddle with the knobs on the little compartments on his pack with anticipating eyes. Ginko smiles. He opens the tiny drawer. 

~~~~~~

Ginko wakes up on Adashino's floor.

To be more precise, he's laid on his back next to Adashino's sleeping form. He's slept on Adashino's spare futon so often the cloth smells of his cigarette smoke. His futon, Adashino calls it- he doesn't even need to tell Ginko where it is, or to retrieve it- and Ginko feels a little like he might have a place to belong, or at least a place where he's always welcome to return. Adashino shifts in his sleep under the blanket. He makes a soft, sleepy noise and settles down again. Ginko, his upper body propped up on one arm, watches him for a moment out of the corner of his eye.

He gets up, after a moment. Slides open the door to the porch- it's a good thing Adashino is a sound sleeper. The starlight glitters on the black sea through the trees. Moonlight floods the floor by his feet. The scene is suddenly doused in a sense of melancholy. Ginko takes a deep breath of the salt-laced night air, a slight breeze cooling his exposed forearms and skipping across his cheeks.

"Anything interesting?" A hoarse voice comes from behind him, and he turns his face from the view to see Adashino groggily propping himself up on one elbow, feeling on the floor for his monocle before deciding it moot and squinting up at Ginko. His brow furrows against the moonlight. The moon is almost full, hanging lowly over the horizon.  
"Not really," Ginko says, sitting down on the porch. After a moment, Adashino pads up to him, his blanket wrapped around his shoulders. It's chilly tonight, even for a seaside village. He settles next to Ginko. They stare out at the sea. Ginko's company is quiet, and easy, and Adashino lets his blanket fall loosely around his waist, hands curling in his lap.

~~~~~~

Eventually, they go back to their individual futons, and when Adashino wakes, Ginko is gone. He blinks blearily for a moment, propping himself up on his elbow, fumbling on the ground beside him for his monocle. He wonders for a moment if Ginko has moved on already, but his wooden pack is still in the corner of the room, and Adashino is tempted to poke around in its compartments again, but Ginko has the strangest tendency to show up when he's gotten too close to anything particularly interesting, so he holds off for the moment. His stomach growls. He decides to fix breakfast first. Ginko must have headed out, probably to the village, at the crack of dawn, because the sun has barely risen over the horizon. Adashino pulls on his robe and cinches the sash around his waist.

"Adashino-sensei!" The villagers wave at him as he makes his way down into the mass of thatched houses. He's a familiar face. He waves back. He makes his way to the house of a fisherman he favors, who always makes sure to set aside some of the fresher parts of the early morning's catch for Adashino's coin, and digs in his sleeve for his money pouch. 

Ginko is standing at the rock outcropping at the far edge of the village. His hands are pushed in the pockets of his long coat. Adashino vaguely thinks he should invest in some good gloves. 

"Have you eaten?" Adashino says by way of announcing himself, shifting the rolled bamboo mat wrapped around the fish he had bought to his other hand. 

Ginko looks around. He exhales, and smoke curls from his mouth. 

"Not yet," he says, taking another drag from his cigarette. "You didn't mess with my bag again, did you?"

"Don't tempt me," Adashino snorts, and they turn back from the sea, back up the hill, back along the rocky path to the house on the cliff. Adashino starts the fire again. Ginko gets the rice, and some water. They prepare a meal in tandem.

"Did anything interesting happen recently?" Adashino says over a bowl of rice and grilled fish, taking a bite after he speaks, feeling the food warm his stomach and kick the rest of his brain into action. This is his way of asking after mushi stories. There's the keen glint of curiosity in his eyes belied by his casual tone.

Ginko chews for a moment. 

"Well." He says, after a beat. "There was an odd case in a mountain village up north, with a colony of mushi disguising itself as rock lichen..."

~~~~~~

Three days pass. The longest Ginko has stayed in Adashino's home had been three weeks, when he had been injured from a tussle with a mushi-possessed animal and their subsequent tumble down a sheer cliff face, and Adashino had treated a deep gash in his leg and what had seemed like a bone fracture in his forearm. Ginko had gotten jumpy in the last few days, telling Adashino that mushi were starting to gather in the rafters of his house. Adashino hadn't minded. He'd found it exciting, actually, trying to pinpoint a mushi's location on instinct alone, or forcing Ginko to describe them all to him in scientific detail, but Ginko had insisted that nothing good could happen where mushi were attracted, and had taken his leave. His visits usually last anywhere between two to four nights. 

Adashino is on his knees in the main room of the house, the sliding door open to look through the trees and over the distant sea. He grinds a pestle into a mortar under his hand. This medicine is to be delivered to a particularly persistent case of pneumonia two villages from the sea. The scent of crushed herbs fills the air.

"Working?" Ginko says. He's approached silently from behind. He sits down next to where Adashino's bundles of plants and tiny ceramic bowls of powder are spread over the tatami. He watches Adashino work for a moment, blue eyes tracing every movement of his hands over the mortar. 

"Some of us have to earn a living," Adashino says, looking down at the green-grey paste in the bowl, frowning minutely. His hand hovers over a bundle of leaves. He scratches his chin. His monocle digs into his brow. 

Ginko's lips twist wryly.

"I make my living from your generous patronage," he says, half-smiling in that way that makes warmth bubble in Adashino's chest unbidden, because he really does enjoy their rapport and Ginko's rare expressions of amusement. He takes another drag from his peprpetually-smoking cigarette. "Besides, don't you buy from several mushishi?"

Adashino grins.

"Actually, one of the Minai mushishi happened to pass through the village the other week," he says, looking up from his herbs, rubbing absently at a spot on his palm where the paste has smeared on his skin. "He was reluctant, and stone-faced, but he was tight for cash, so he sold me something interesting."

Adashino pulls himself up from his kneeling position. Ginko watches him with a hint of interest in his eyes. He makes his way over to the drawer he puts his recent acquisitions in, before he sorts them into his storage shed, and digs around for the thing he's looking for. 

"You've got to stop buying strange things off sketchy mushishi," Ginko sighs, taking another pull from his smoke. "How do you know he even was one? You're going to get scammed someday, Adashino."

"You were one of those sketchy mushishi I took a chance on," Adashino points out, fingers curling around the thing he'd been searching for. "Aha! Found it."

He turns around, the pleased grin he gets when he's found something rare plastered all over his face, making him look boyish behind the monocle. He waves his trinket in Ginko's face. Ginko peers at it. He sighs. 

~~~~~~

Ginko leaves the next morning.

"Going already?" Adashino yawns- it must be before dawn, but Ginko has already put away his futon and packed his bag. Adashino presses his monocle hazily to his eye. He pulls himself up onto one elbow. The lamp isn't lit, and the fire is out, and Ginko's tall, dense form moves quietly through the shadows. He stops and looks down at Adashino.  
"Mm," he says, and starts moving again- he pulls his pack onto his back, and slips his shoes on, and pauses again by the foot of Adashino's futon. He sets his pack down again. Adashino squints blearily at him. He kneels by Adashino's shoulder. Adashino watches him. Ginko leans down, smooths a hand along the side of Adashino's neck, and kisses him on the cheek.

Adashino stiffens under the touch. Ginko pulls back, and starts to move away, fingers inching towards the straps of his pack, but Adashino catches his shoulder with a sudden movement and presses upwards, kissing him fully, feels Ginko smile against him in something that feels completely natural. Adashino sighs. After a moment, they pull apart.

"I'll be back." Ginko says after a moment, breathing slightly quicker than usual. Adashino wishes there was light, so he could see if a flush has risen on Ginko's pale face. "See you later."

Adashino smiles. As with any parting, a bittersweet feeling lingers in his chest.

"And I'll be waiting," he says, as Ginko stands again, hefts his pack on his back, turns away towards the door. His friend steps out into the cool, dark air. His form is almost swallowed by the shapeless night. The sky carries a promise of another dawn.

Ginko raises a hand in farewell. The outlines of his individual fingers disappear before they can reach Adashino's eye. Ginko's white hair gleams dimly even in the dark, and Adashino remembers what it had felt like, only a moment ago, under his touch. At some point he's lit another cigarette. The smoke curls from his mouth and fades into the darkness.

"Bring something interesting back!" Adashino calls out after him, voice still slightly hoarse from sleep but light with affection, and he hears Ginko snort a laugh before he turns away again, and slides the door shut behind him. Suddenly the room is impenetrable again. Adashino is acutely aware of his own breathing. The tatami by Adashino's futon has barely cooled from where Ginko had knelt on it only minutes before, but Adashino is alone.

Until next time.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: Sorry if this is terribly ooc the mushishi chars are.. so hard to get a narrative grip on  
> [tumblr](http://kimishitaatsushi.tumblr.com)  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/serpentinej)  
> [writing twitter](https://twitter.com/jjigens)


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